Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon

Don't believe all these negative reviews here for MAX HAVOC: CURSE OF THE DRAGON, it's worse. Way worse.

This is one of those films you sort of stumble upon at the video store, and everything else good or halfway good is already checked out, so you give it a shot, knowing full well the film is going to suck. But just how bad MAX HAVOC sucks may shock you: It's dull, boring, tiresome, listless, etc, etc. You get the idea.

Someone on one of these reviews here compares MAX HAVOC to an episode of MANGNUM P.I., except MANGNUM P.I. is at lest a competent product. MAX HAVOC is wretchedly bad. It's the kind of bad-film in which you wonder while watching it: "How do films like this get made?" A very good question.

MAX HAVOC was made by consistently bad film maker Albert Pyun. You wonder why anyone would knowingly hire this hack. The film is full of stock footage, bad acting, the list can go on forever.

There is currently some kinda controversy over the financing of the film. The island of Guam put up the money for this film (who can say why. I guess they have never seen an Albert Pyun film because that's exactly what they got: An Albert Pyun incompetent sh*t film.)

Folks, if you're a film investor and you see the name Albert Pyun attached to the film some slimy film producer is asking you to invest in, be afraid. Be very afraid.

If this film were an animal it would be taken out back and shot and put out of it's misery. If you're unfortunate enough to have to endure this dung-heap DVD, you may wish someone would shoot you and put you out of your misery.

MAX HAVOC: CURSE OF THE DRAGON is maximum incompetencey, maximum tedium, and maximum thievery.

The movie starts off with a bunch of stock footage of a motor-bike race, and continues for about another 15 minutes until there's a fight at a bar with sports Photographer Max Havoc (they don't tell us his middle name) and some bimbo.

Then we're off to Guam for some travel promo stuff, and then the films over.

Sure there's a couple of poorly executed fights, some running around in a hotel, a row boat/swimmer wreak, and about 350 shots of the same slow-mo shot of Max punching someone, but that's about it.

Albert Pyun has made the worst movie of his sorry-ass career (I mean it, too. It's worse then those Urban Menace films)

This movie had to be a scam, all the way around. Someone got some movie budget money in their pockets and now everything's in court.

Can I file a lawsuit against Pyun & Co. for having had watch this thing?

Don't waste a penny of your $ or a second of your time on Max Havoc- Curse of the Dragon

Max Havoc (Mickey Hardt) is an ex-kickboxer turned photographer who protects two attractive sisters from the Yakuza led by David Carradine. Seems that one of the sisters bought a jade dragon from dealer Richard Roundtree and after numerous awkward moments, Max Havoc saves the day but doesn't save the film. As far as narrative flow goes, Max Havoc:Curse Of The Dragon is possibly Pyun's most chaotic movie ever made. (And I saw Nemesis 1-3, Bloodmatch and Deceit) The problem with Max Havoc is that it only provides occasional laughter. From laughably overblown suspense sequences that involve hostage taking, getting run over by a row-boat, getting cut up in a limo and much much more. However Pyun actually makes the biggest mistake by hardly giving us any dumb moments and basically the movie is mostly dulls-ville. There is some controversy over how this movie was made, but I for one am indifferent to such matters. Sure it's not right but i'm not here to discuss politics and my neutral observations are simple; Max Havoc is a terrible movie with only a few (unintentionally) hilarious moments to keep you from shutting it off. Among the unintentionally hilarious moments is how Pyun pays direct "homage" to Cyborg (itself a masterpiece compared to this) in that Pyun shows pointless flashbacks for no other reason but to stretch out the running time. In this case we watch Max Havoc deliver a jumping punch which is then followed by David Carradine looking mean into the camera and smoking his cigarette and showing his rings. Also the ending makes no sense and the impression here is given that the movie wasn't even indeed finished. Max Havoc:Curse Of The Dragon is so incompetently edited that fight sequences are literally scrapped before the confrontation ends! Also the story is so over the map it's impossible to follow it coherently and finally the movie features acting so terrible that it sometimes borders on surreality. David Carradine and Richard Roundtree look (rightfully) embarrassed, Carmen Electra is not in it much and newcomer Mickey Hardt is so bad that he makes other Pyun leads (a list that includes Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sasha Mitchell, Michael Dudikoff,Gary Daniels, Steven Seagal and (shudder) Olivier Gruner) seem like master thespians. Seriously where did they find this guy? Still the main question is whether Max Havoc:Curse Of The Dragon works as a guilty pleasure style movie, and sadly the answer is no. There are a few laughs to be had but mainly we watch Mickey Hardt snap photos for like forty minutes before anything happens and this in itself is a tragedy because without dumb action, Max Havoc:Curse Of The Dragon is just painful to watch.

Note:On the DVD there is a biography of David Carradine and Richard Roundtree however both sections neglect to mention Bound For Glory,Kill Bill Vol.1 and Shaft on the filmography for the two distinguished actors. Which only shows the ineptitude of all involved.

* out of 4-(Bad)

Being from Guam, of course I wanted to see this film. Everyone made such a big deal about it and the Government put up the money for it.

What a really bad movie. It made little sense to me and was a waste of time. I watched it on TV here so I couldn't fast forward it!

Some of my friends were in it as extras, so I guess it was cool seeing them, but the shot they were in was out-of-focus, so even that was worthless. My friends were angry. I guess they waited for hours and hours and never got paid.

The only place this movie is ever gonna play is in the your local car-wash bin for $1.99. It's not even worth that!

Living here on Guam, I thought it presented our island well. Would it be nicer for it to have better actors and story, yes, of course. But for what it is it wasn't too bad. I have seen far worse (unfortunately) but generally my friends here liked it. And it did get Guam more attention than the millions the government and its visitors bureau waste on cheesy islander adverts. The film was just too plain and has a dreadful lead actress. I think Joanna Crupa was her her name. Painful to watch and brought the whole effort down in my opinion. I thought the Max was okay. Not bad as an actor or star. Our own Tawney Sablan was the best thing about the film. She was cute and more believable than the bimbo playing her older sister. I like it that they used a local talent in such a big part and that really added to the enjoyment. I also thought the photography of the island was good. I heard from my nephew that the film went through many changes and more shooting in Los Angeles to add stars like David Carradine (R.I.P). He had seen a different version which he said made more sense but I thought this version was okay. Except for that stupid blonde actress! She was horrible. Go Tawney!